Bracket Experts Lunardi & Palm Weigh in on PC & URI’s NCAA Tournament Scenarios
Monday, March 05, 2018
GoLocalProv talked to the two leading bracketology experts in CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi about potential NCAA tournament scenarios for both Providence College and the University of Rhode Island heading into conference championship week.
The PC Friars and the URI men’s basketball teams are less than a week away from finding out their NCAA Tournament fate.
The Rams are a lock for the NCAA Tournament heading into the A-10 Tournament, while the Friars are on the bubble heading into the Big East Tournament.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBracketology Update: URI
The Rams finished the regular season as the A-10 regular season champions and ranked 17th in the country. They have an overall record of 23-6 and 15-3 in the conference.
However, they have lost three of their last five games including a loss on the road to Davidson and a home loss to St. Joseph’s.
“Losing to Davidson on the road isn’t a bad loss, losing to St. Joe’s, there is no excuse for, that’s like, you forgot to show up. I mean that cost them three lines in the bracket. If they take another bad loss they could be in the middle of the bracket,” Palm told GoLocalProv.
URI will open the A-10 Tournament against either eighth-seeded VCU or ninth-seeded Dayton on Friday at noon.
“If they were to lose in the quarterfinal, they could fall to an 8/9 game and then you are in a toss-up game just to play the #1 seed,” Lunardi told GoLocalProv.
Palm adds “If they win the A-10 Tournament, who are they beating? It’s not like they are beating Michigan State,” Palm continued, “they can pretty much only hurt themselves at this point. It’s not like picking up a second win over St. Bonaventure is going to move them from a 7-seed to a 4-seed.”
URI is seeded seventh by both Lunardi and Palm in their latest bracket projections.
Lunardi told GoLocalProv that he thinks Rhode Island can get back to a six-seed at best with an A-10 Tournament win.
Bracketology Update: PC
The Friars finished the regular season with an overall record of 19-12 and a conference record of 10-8, good enough for fifth in the Big East.
Providence will play Creighton in the first round of the Big East Tournament on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The biggest question for PC is do they need to win Thursday to seal a fifth straight NCAA Tournament bid?
“I’m not sure they have to win and there is no way to know that, but I still think their odds are better than 50/50 if they don’t. I just think their good wins and the number of them are better than the other teams at the end of the line,” said Lunardi of PC's wins over Villanova and Xavier.
Palm added, “their [PC] chances of getting in are pretty good. If they go out in the first game against Creighton they will probably be a double-digit seed or could be out entirely, but I don’t think so. I don’t think their situation it is quite that bad.”
According to Lunardi’s latest projection, PC is an 11 seed and playing Texas in a First Four game as one of the last four in.
Palm also has the Friars as an 11-seed, but not one of the last four in.
Related Slideshow: URI Rams Basketball 2017-18 Projected Starting Lineup
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